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LittleHousebytheFerry.com

Little House By The Ferry represents the convergence of some of my favourite things – writing, Bahamian history, Green Turtle Cay, and Fish Hooks, my ancestral home. Through this blog, I look forward to sharing our Green Turtle Cay adventures and documenting the restoration of our little house by the ferry.

Please note that I do not receive any form of compensation from the individuals or organizations I write about. Unless otherwise noted, I own the rights to all text and images posted on this blog.

…Green Turtle Cay

Founded in 1786 by Revolutionary War Loyalists, and named for the green turtles that once were plentiful in its waters, Green Turtle Cay lies three miles east of Great Abaco, Bahamas, and 170 miles east of Palm Beach, Florida.

Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas

Perched on the southwestern end of the island is New Plymouth, a quiet settlement with narrow streets and tidy rows of pastel-painted clapboard houses. Though Green Turtle Cay once boasted a population of close to 2,000, today only about 500 locals – most working in tourism or fisheries – call the island home.

…Fish Hooks

Fish Hooks is an 80-yr-old cottage on the New Plymouth waterfront in Green Turtle Cay. It was built by my great-grandparents Herman and May Curry after a 1932 hurricane leveled their home and most of the buildings on the island. After my great-grandmother’s death in 1984, the house sat empty for years. My husband Tom and I purchased the cottage in 2012 and are in the process of restoring it. To learn more about the restoration project, see The Story of Fish Hooks Cottage.

I’m a ninth-generation Bahamian who counts Loyalists Wyannie Malone, Nathan Key and pirate Matthew Lowe among my ancestors. When not at Fish Hooks, I can be found in Los Angeles, with my husband, Tom Walters and dog, Wrigley.

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48 comments for “About”

Good to hear from you Amanda! What an interesting project! Any short stories published lately? I’m writing you from a little cottage in the trees by Arrow Lake in the Kootenays. Quite a contrast to the Bahamas!

No, that headpiece is part of a Junkanoo costume that was on display at Green Turtle Cay’s Island Roots Heritage Festival. Junkanoo is a traditional Bahamian festival, and participating in a Junkanoo parade (called a rush) is on my bucket list, so just getting to wear the costume was a thrill.

My Bahamian wife (of nearly as many generations) shared the link to your blog as a teaser for our coming visit to Green Turtle Cay. What I didn’t expect was a collection of beautifully crafted vignettes combined with fine images. I suppose this is what a blog is meant to be. In your case, however, the term should be a “gem.” Thank you.

Jeff, thank you so much for your kind words! Tom and I both love Green Turtle Cay and it’s truly a pleasure to share it with others. Hope you have a terrific holiday — I look forward to hearing all about it. This isn’t your first trip to GTC, is it?

Amanda, I am so pleased to see you manifesting such an avid interest in your Greenturtle roots.with the enthusiasm of people like yourself, perhaps our heritage will be preserved. I look forward to meeting you again one day.
Greg

Hi, Greg. Thanks for your note. I’ve always loved Green Turtle, and thankfully, my husband (and dog!) feel the same way. We’re just happy to have the opportunity to preserve a tiny piece of it, and to share our adventures with others. Yes, I do hope we can meet again in person one day — maybe on the Cay?

I am enjoying your blog, I get it from Facebook and my family on GTC. I live in Florida.
My father is James Saunders, he was born and raised on GTC. I was there the beginning of July and had a wonderful time. I know right where your home is. So glad someone is going to enjoy it. Am looking forward to more of your blog. It is very interesting and educating. I have been forwarding the link to my children who live in Indiana.

Hi, Gail. Thank you for your note! I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the blog. It really is a lot of fun to work on, and it’s great to get to share our GTC experiences with others. Do you get to GTC very often? Is your father related to Graham Saunders, who married Vera Lowe?

Hi Amanda. My name is Paula Jackson and I am related to you. I am the daughter of John W. Lowe and the sister of Paul and Evan Lowe. I live in Port St. Lucie, FL with my husband Lynn. My first husband was deceased in 2003. My two daughters and their families also live in Port St. Lucie. I am really enjoying reading the stories on the blog regarding my dad’s history. Dad told us so many times about the 1932 hurricane and many other childhood stories. I visited GTC in 2002. It had been nearly 40 years since my last visit. I really enjoyed the day there. Look forward to reading more stories.

Hi, Paula. Great to hear from you. I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. It’s a lot of fun to work on — and I’m getting to meet so many “new” relatives. 🙂 I’ve known Evan for a while, but I just “met” Paul this week. I’m thinking that at some point, we should throw a Curry family reunion at some point in GTC. There are a lot of us Curry grandchildren and great grands around. Thanks so much for writing (and for reading the blog.) Hope we get the chance to meet one day soon.

Glad to hear back from you. I love to read about our ancestry. There are descendants of Aunt Dora, another daughter of Great Grandpa Wes Curry living in Florida. I have contact with these. Keep in touch.

Hi Amanda,
Thank you for checking out my blog (http://spryandretiring.wordpress.com) and delighted to read yours because it led me back 40 years to our three years of teaching in Nassau. We loved the Bahamas and still have many friends from that time. Indeed we loved it so much that we’ve settled in Brisbane, a city on the same latitude, but in the southern hemisphere, which boasts jacarandas in October, and poincianas in December! I’ve signed on for new posts from you, and will be sure to pass the link on to all our old Bahamian friends.
Regards, Angie Oakley

Hi, Angie. You’re very welcome! I really enjoyed your post about penmanship, and I agree completely. There’s just something about the physical act of putting pen to paper…. I do most of my writing on the computer, but sometimes, I just can’t “think” that way. I need to sit with a pen and a notepad first, let the thoughts come, process them, put them on paper, and then take to the computer for editing….

Glad to hear you enjoyed your time in the Bahamas! Did you get to explore the out islands while you were there?

My husband and I chartered a sailboat for our honeymoon twelve years ago, and spent the week island hoping the Cays of Abaco. We haven’t had the chance to go back, but now I have found your blog. You live in a beautiful place!

Hello Amanda, thank you for stopping by my blog! I had the chance to visit the Bahamas a few times with my family when I was young. Though I do not think we made it to Green Turtle Cay, I was lucky to see many off the beaten track places as we were travelling by sailboat (my parents were very into sailing) and remember loving the islands of the Bahamas. Your project sounds wonderful, and the location looks beautiful!. Best of luck on the restoration!

Greetings from New England–First, thank you for visiting my blog. Yours is quite fascinating. My wife is half Scottish/English. Her father’s line goes to the Isle of Skye and then on to Prince Edward Island. Her mother is from somewhere closer to London, though where exactly I’m not sure. I’ll check on your posts here and there and with that, all the best to you!!

hi there, i’m related to you as well…I dropped you a note somewhere else under the DNA ancestry….I also have Matthew Lowe the pirate as I believe my 7th great-grandfather…its been a minute since I’ve refreshed my memory with all the connections..my grandfather was Charles s Roberts from Key West, his parents were George A.T. Roberts & Mary “Mamie” Eliza Lowe of Key West, and hailed from the Bahamas. I’d love to stay in touch. My email is kgcossey@netzero.com
GeorgeAnne Cossey

How lovely your little Fish Hooks is! I can’t wait to read on and see more of your progress and also the inside! My husband and I are currently restoring an old/antique place in the Freedom Hills area of Alabama. I’m so glad you visited me today!

Dear Amanda,
My dear friend, Alton Lowe, spoke to me of your Blog only last evening and I have just spent over 3 hours perusing your Blog.

What an amazingly beautiful and historically enlightening in-depth Blog of Fish Hooks and GTC culture and generational evolvement. I learned more about the island and saw more of the “Junkanoo” costumes/parades and Island “Roots Festival” festivities, the refurbishing of the Alton Lowe Museum, over a span of 28 yrs., in your Blog than ever before. I was especially intrigued with the remarkable detail of your writings, the pictures, the videos, the origin of GTC and sister city, Key West, the history of the 1932 Hurricane that destroyed so many lives and homes as the grave markers of the original Loyalists who settled in GTC and their descendants, as well as your showing us the beautiful waters surrounding the island and the tropical plants. I also enjoyed seeing the maps which made areas and inlets so clear to me. I have visited your lovely island on many occasions being a part of Alton Lowe’s troupe of performers for the Abaco Cultural Society in various scenarios & Shows. Thank you for this extraordinary presentation. You can be sure I will be looking at “Fish Hooks” in a much different way as I disembark from a Bolo ferry in your front yard. “Applause, Applause” to you and Tom for an exciting adventure. I look forward to meeting you both one day.
Respectfully, Joy Martone, Miami, FL

I have a house in White Sound on the Bluff House property. GTC is one of my favorite places in the world. I appreciate your taking the time to capture and share the special nature of our little island. I will share your website with our guests and friends.

Hello Amanda! I’ve decided to read and follow 15 interesting and new blogs a day every day for the first month of 2015, and yours is today’s #13! Feel free to come visit me when you can at http://www.thatssojacob.wordpress.com, and follow if you like what you read. Happy new year and happy blogging!

Hi Amanda, thanks for checking out my blog! Nice to ‘Cyber’meet a (fella) Bahamian 🙂 and I love the concept of your blog! Will definitely be trying out some of those delicious recipes from your grandmother!

Bless you for properly restoring your house. I am 71 & have been visiting GTC for 63 of those years. I have fond & vivid memories of life on the cay when I was a child, before refrigation, before baseball caps replaced palm frond or straw hats, before outboard motors. My mother & rechid step-father, Kitty & Pearce Coady started Bluff House. I lived in Delaware with my father & step-mother, but came to Green Turtle for Christmases, spring brakes, & summers. I’m so amazed & delighted that it has changed so little, in my opinion, compared to The outside world. I arrived on my first visit by way of Sammy & Mary Sawyer’s ” Stamba IV.” I remember Cyril Pinder & Neville Key, & Sidney Lowe, but wish I could remember the names of so many others whose faces I can still see. The Coady’s gave Lincon Jones his first bicycle. So many memories.

As you can tell, Green Turtle, & New Plymouth have a special place in my soul. I hope to meet you & Tom some day. Perhaps during the Christmas holidays one of these years.

I have visited GTC since the early 1970’s. We always stated with Howard Searcy at his vacation cottage at the end of Black Sound and remember many colorful names such as Cardinal Mcintosh, Burft Rackley, the” Gully Roosters Band, Doyle who took care of Searcy’s place,and The Town Constable, . There too many more for my 73 year old mind to remember.

So, what has happened since May 4, 2016??? I’ve only just discovered your nostalgia-inducing GTC Blog, and what a wonderful portraiture you paint of GTC!!! I just love it, even though I am in fact, a New Providence “Island Boy”, who fell in love with Abaco in the early seventies as I traveled throughout the entire Bahamian chain of Islands engaged in Evangelistic work (Preaching “The Good News”) as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Admittedly, my memory of an altogether too brief a visit to GTC is much too faint, especially when compared to vivid and kaleidoscopic images featured in your Blog….but I do remember how much I loved the experience. Please, let’s hear from you again…real soon. Meanwhile, please visit our website, and let us know just what we may feature to improve our offerings:http://www.gloriasdlites.com

Got photos of Abaco you'd like to share with LHBTF readers? Send them to amanda (at) littlehousebytheferry (dot) com. You'll get full photo credit as well as a link back to your personal or business website.

This blog represents the convergence of some of my favourite things – writing, Bahamian history, Green Turtle Cay, and Fish Hooks, my ancestral home. Here, I share our Abaco adventures and document the restoration of Fish Hooks, an 84-yr-old cottage built by my great-grandparents on Green Turtle Cay, one of the Abaco Cays in the Bahamas.